This volume presents 18 eighteen essays, written by scholars from six countries, on Tanizaki Jun'ichiro (1886-1965), one of the great writers of the 20th century. The essays were originally prepared for a landmark international symposium in Venice in 1995, at which 22 speakers addressed an audience of about two hundred students and scholars in the Aula Magna of the University of Venice. Topics include Tanizaki's fiction, plays, and film scenarios
his aesthetics
his place in Japanese intellectual history
his depiction of the West
his use of humor
and film adaptations of his works. In 1964 Tanizaki was elected to honorary membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the first Japanese to be so honored
and it is widely believed that he was being considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature.